


This Time

by klioud



Category: Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Artistic Liberties or More Accurately Headcanons Ahoy!™, Drabble Collection, F/M, Ficlet Collection, Love, Mentions of Regurgitation, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Spoilers, Vignette Collection
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:20:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23786980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/klioud/pseuds/klioud
Summary: FF7R. Drabble, Vignette & Ficlet Collection. Contains Spoilers.Cloud and Aerith have been reunited.Latest:Prettyis not the first word that comes to mind when he looks at them now. Other words beat it to the punch: cool. Unmissable. Intimidating to those who know what the colour of his irises mean.It strikes him then that Aerithdoesknow.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Cloud Strife
Comments: 4
Kudos: 46





	1. Ficlet (Chapter 9): Dance-off

“So,” Aerith asks as they pass by the florist's storefront, “where'd you learn to dance like that?”

Cloud knows he should not be surprised to hear such admiration in her voice. From her place in the audience, Aerith had watched his earlier performance with eyes as wide as her smile. At the time, a voice buried inside him like an old landmine had wondered if he only imagined her awe. 

Rhodea gave Cloud no real opportunities to glance in her direction during their performance. Each routine had been a test of all that Shinra invested in him: of his stamina and strength. His balance and flexibility. Of his capacity to predict his opponent's movements and to react accordingly. Only the segues between tracks afforded him a second or two to look her way.

Cloud had found Aerith whooping wildly as she clapped her hands together above her head.

In that moment, something lionlike laid upon his pounding heart as if sunning itself. 

He feels it now as it lets out an easy breath against the underside of his collarbones.

“Sometimes a recruit thinks they've found a way to one-up you.” Bunching his skirts in his fists, Cloud hitches them up just enough to clear the concrete steps leading up to the don's mansion. He tries not to be surprised for the nth time when his high heels connect with the pavement milliseconds sooner than expected.

From a step or two behind him, Aerith gasps in excitement.

“You had dance-offs in SOLDIER?” 

Cloud cannot help but snort. She has such faith in the weirdness of the world.

“Only when I've had to,” he answers. Sneaks a glance over his shoulder at her. Her smile is brighter than the Honeybee Inn's stage lights.

“So it's like a last resort, huh?” She does not sound convinced. An ache builds in his instep as he mounts the next flight of stairs. It makes Cloud wish Rhodea's people had let him wear his boots under his dress. “Hmm... seemed pretty good for something you haven't done often...”

“I pick things up quick.”

His heel slips on the concrete. For a split second, all that Shinra has invested in him clocks out. 

Aerith catches him by the elbow at the same time that he catches himself. 

“I can see that.” That thing in his chest curls in on itself in embarrassment. With her fingers lingering on his elbow, Aerith leans closer to him and grins. Something about her smile makes the tension in his chest pop. 

Cloud represses a second snort. 

They climb the next few steps with her hand on his arm. When they reach the top of the stairs, her fingers slip away.

He finds himself missing their warmth.


	2. Vignette (Chapter 9): Pretty

Aerith had called his eyes _pretty._

While his client heaves into the restaurant's sole toilet bowl, Cloud turns his gaze to the wall-mounted mirror. The dismal lighting does nothing but make his skin look sallow. His almost-incandescent eyes catch on themselves in the shadows cast by his furrowed brow.

 _Pretty_ is not the first word that comes to mind when he looks at them now. Other words beat it to the punch: cool. Unmissable. Intimidating to those who know what the colour of his irises mean.

It strikes him then that Aerith _does_ know.

Shifting his weight onto one foot, Cloud leans closer to the mirror. A few more words come to mind. 

Some of them are not his own.

_Your eyes. They used to be less..._

What his eyes are _less_ of escapes him. Cloud searches them anyway. In the three seconds that he stares, the only revelation that occurs to him is that Aerith might not be wrong.

“Okay... okay.” The client's voice echoes inside the toilet. Cloud remembers then the pills and the disposable cup of water in his hands. “I'll take them now.”

Aerith had called his eyes _pretty._ Maybe that is why Cloud does not mind it half as much as he should when the man turns too quickly and sputters what is left of his stomach's contents on Cloud's boots.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for your time!


End file.
